BELMONT – Typically, a fadeaway long-range jumper is what a defense wants to force on the final shot of a tie game.

For Belmont Abbey College on Saturday, Erskine’s Mike Gabbard defied conventional wisdom with a walkoff 20-footer that capped an 84-82 Flying Fleet come-from-behind victory that ruined the Crusaders’ home and Conference Carolinas opener.

“We just didn’t finish and they did what you want to do on the road: They had a chance to win at the end of the game,” said Belmont Abbey coach Stephen Miss, whose team by as many as nine points and were ahead 82-77 with 1:14 to play. “We had a good shot at the end that we missed, then they had a guy falling away from the basket. That’s a tough shot, but give him credit for making a play.”

The loss drops the Abbey to 3-1 after a solid 3-0 start last weekend gave the Crusaders the championship of the Mayaguez, P.R., round robin tournament.

That momentum appeared to be staying with the Crusaders when they led for all but 22 seconds from the 11:34 mark of the opening half until the buzzer-beating shot.

But after Jay Council, who went 11 of 15 with team-highs of 25 points and 11 rebounds, missed a 15-footer from the left baseline with nine seconds left, Erskine (3-0, 1-0) rebounded and set up their final play.

Gabbard took the inbounds pass, drove hard to the left of the lane under pressure from the Abbey’s Terrone Sheffey before firing up the off-balance jumper that hit the bottom of the net as the buzzer sounded.

“We were up and then we miss free throws, we made mistakes and let them hang around,” Miss said.

Sheffey, a 2009 Gaston Day School graduate, added 21 points and team-high five assists. Tyshawn Good added 19 points and Chris Davis 12 for the Abbey, which returns to action Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Time Warner Cable Arena against Tusculum in a preliminary game before the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats host the Toronto Raptors.

Corey Sorrell had 23 points, Gabbard 20 and Jake Haslam 15 for the Flying Fleet. Gabbard also had a game-high 10 assists.